Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Israeli troops shot two Lebanese Hezbollah fighters who tried to plant a bomb on the fence between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syrian-held territory on Wednesday, the army said, according to Reuters news agency.

Israeli intelligence had identified the men as members of Hezbollah, which is helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fight a three-year-old rebellion, an army spokeswoman said.

She had no immediate word on their condition.

Syria’s civil war has brought an end to decades of calm on the Golan Heights, a strip of land which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Battles between rebels fighting against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syrian villages nearby are being watched intensely by Israel’s military.

Hezbollah, which is also backed by Iran, has sent thousands of its own fighters to combat Syrian rebels, according to Israeli and Western estimates.

Israel last fought Hezbollah in a 2006 Lebanon war and still closely monitors the Lebanese border. Israel says Hezbollah hastens of thousands of rockets in its south Lebanon stronghold.

The Jewish state is worried Hezbollah is making initial preparations for future confrontation with it on a new front with Syria and is accruing valuable combat experience on the Syrian battlefield.

*Agencies